Opinion | Hong Kong children’s well-being and Covid-19 fifth wave need focus rather than politics

The public has no stomach for any big talk about government overhauls at a time when Covid-19 is spreading and our children are suffering

Rather than fretting over politics, let policymakers make Hong Kong children’s needs a priority

Reading Time:3 minutes

Kindergarten students in Hong Kong’s Quarry Bay district on January 11. Kindergarten and primary school students have been taken out of in-person classes again, posing further risk to their academic achievement, social development and mental and emotional health. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 6:45am, 17 Jan 2022

There has been quite a lot of talk on the political circuit about the next chief executive. It is quite natural, of course, since there are only less than three months to go before the chief executive election.

The incumbent chief executive has been tight-lipped on whether she will seek re-election for a second term. No one from Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s cabinet has quit, so it does not look like anyone from the current administration is eyeing the spot. With no one else having yet put themselves forward, we can only guess.

By looking at what Lam has said, it appears she would not mind a second term. At the inaugural meeting and first question-and-answer session with the chief executive for the seventh term of the Legislative Council, Lam looked very much the part of the headmistress in front of legislators, many of whom are first-time lawmakers.

So far so good for the executive-led political system Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, wanted to safeguard.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam, Hong leaves following a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on January 12. Photo: Bloomberg

Lam also showed her hand by detailing her plans to restructure the government, with just months left in her first term. She first unveiled the restructure in her last policy address in October 2021, along with many other major policies that would not be characteristic of a lame-duck government.